


Mother of the Nightmare

by Rhaeluna



Series: Bloodborne Fairy Tales [1]
Category: Bloodborne (Video Game)
Genre: Bloodlust, Body Horror, Childhood, City of Yharnam, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Demon Blood Addiction, Emotional Manipulation, F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Gothic, Growing Old Together, Horror, Hunters & Hunting, Kings & Queens, Lesbian Character, Lovecraftian, Monsters, Pre-Canon, beasts - Freeform, cosmic horror, cosmos - Freeform, lesbian queens, no technically dies, pthumeru, the sky and the cosmos are one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-14 19:45:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14143215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhaeluna/pseuds/Rhaeluna
Summary: A fairy tale about Ebrietas and Yharnam, the love and life they find with each other, and how the cosmos made them what we know them to be.





	Mother of the Nightmare

Long ago in a city sunken in shadow there fought a warrior of noble heart. Found as a babe in the misty woods, her name was Ebrietas, and she defended her people from the beasts who came from the dark forests. Cheers and beer greeted her wherever she roamed, for all loved her. Princess Yharnam the Clever, however, loved her best, and soon the two public figures started a romantic game of words that Ebrietas could never hope to win. Yharnam teased her lover in her victories but ultimately Ebrietas had the last play, for how could Yharnam talk her in circles when Ebrietas was on her knees proposing marriage, her eyes sincere and full of love? The feast following their ceremony was filled with the juiciest fruits, vegetables, and meats the city could provide, for all were invited. The Queens danced the streets under the starlight, their laughter cradling the land, their love carrying the smiles of their people. In time they bore children and, as their princesses grew, so did their hearts.

Their city sat peacefully atop a cliff hidden away from the main roads by crags and valleys. Below the great outcropping was a seas of trees, the ocean of woods from which the beasts came crawling. On a sunny date in late October, Ebrietas and Yharnam strolled through the forest, a light breeze tangling their hair. Swords drawn and treating the occasion like an impromptu date amidst their busy schedules, the Queens watched the edge of the tree line for beasts in the darkness.

To their shock, a short, lithe woman dressed in all white strode into the glade. Her eyes were a piercing red, her short hair the color of stars. She smiled at Ebrietas and Yharnam and spoke.

“Have you no guilt for the beasts you slay? You are similar, you and them.”

“What do you mean?” Ebrietas asked, “I am no beast.” 

“Surely you jest, Ebrietas is noble and kind,” Yharnam said, eyes wary.

The woman of the woods smirked, a wry thing, before she explained. “All people are beasts. For countless years you have slain these creatures but do you not question where they come from? They climb your great cliff and you see only monsters, not the people they actually are. They were once like you, now changed by a blood older than stars.”

Fear danced in the chests of the Queens. 

“Madness. What proof do you have?” Yharnam said.

“If we are all beasts, then I must rid myself of mine.” Ebrietas said, “I refuse to be a threat to my loves and my land. If you aren’t a charlatan, answer me this: can the beasthood be cured?”

For a moment the woman of the wood was millions of miles away, then a small prideful smile crept onto her lips. She reached into her coat and removed a pale, ruby colored object from her pocket, letting it fall to the grass before her. It appeared to be a sphere, but it writhed when seen from the corner of the eye. “Consume that to discover the knowledge and find out.”

Before any more questions could be asked a tear in the air itself appeared and swallowed the woman as if she’d never been there at all. Ebrietas picked up the ruby colored object and held it up to the light.

“That’s probably dangerous,” said Yharnam, “She spoke madness, but it could still be a trick to harm us. Throw it away.” Ebrietas nodded, the faint scent of blood carrying on the breeze as she turned back to gaze into the wood. Shaken, the Queens returned home, the ruby stone tucked secretly away in Ebrietas’s pocket.

Years passed and the Queens’ kingdom flourished around them. Together, Ebrietas and Yharnam watched their children grow with pride in their hearts and songs in their lungs. The land, ever shrouded by the black fog of the forest, seemed to grow a little lighter. As they grew old together, Yharnam saw in her Ebrietas a spark of something not quite new, but something she hadn’t fully paid attention to before. More and more often, her wife would venture into the wood and hunt the beasts that resided there, just out of sight from her kingdom. Suddenly gone were the days where Ebrietas spent her scant free time building sculptures for her wife or teaching the children to ballroom dance. In the morning and in the dead of night, Yharnam felt her lover leave their bed and wander into the trees, blade in hand. Upon her returns she was sticky from the red blood covering her clothes.

Yharnam loved her wife dearly and trusted her to come forward when she was ready. However, when Ebrietas began to disappear for nights at a time, she knew it was time to confront her. She did so on the balcony of their bedroom after her Warrior returned from the wood one night, dirt and vitae dripping from Ebrietas like rain after a storm, her eyes bloodshot. A pale red moon waned in the sky over the forest.

“Obsession is consuming you my love,” Yharnam said, “what’s happened to you?”

Ebrietas shook, teeth clattering. “The wood calls to me, Yharnam. Before it was duty, but something’s changed. I need the hunt like I need food and water, and I don’t know why.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

“I don’t know, but I feel the bloodlust singing to me. It grows stronger, like a beast rearing its head after hibernation.”

In that moment the memory came flooding back to them both like a messy dream. Ebrietas opened her bedside table and withdrew the small ruby stone from under the boards within. In the many years since she’d last seen it the shine hadn’t faded at all. Yharnam growled, her eyes full of hurt.

“You said you’d throw it away,” she said.

“I couldn’t,” said Ebrietas, “but perhaps this is the answer! The woman of the wood said if I ingest the stone I’d find the answers!”

“Or perhaps that stone is the reason your bloodlust grows! She was a foul witch, Ebrietas! First you don’t tell me you’re struggling, leaving me to find out on my own, and now you’ve lied about the stone that might be the source of it all? I’m hurt.”

“I’m sorry,” Ebrietas lowered her eyes, her deep voice cracking, “You’re right, that wasn’t fair of me. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to burden you, not with something so shameful.”

Yharnam stepped forward and touched her wife’s cheek. “I forgive you, but you’re going to make this up to me. We can overcome this together.” Ebrietas smiled and Yharnam enveloped her in a warm embrace. “Now throw it away.”

And she did.

The stone gone, Ebrietas tore her longing gaze away from the wood and locked her blades and saws deep within the castle. The nights passed slowly. Ebrietas frequently found herself on the balcony under the stars, staring endlessly out in the dark, Yharnam watching her love’s breath rise and fall under tense muscle. Months went by without incident. While at first Ebrietas slept during the afternoons instead of at night she found herself falling back into a healthier routine of rest. The draw weakened and joy entered her charcoal heart again, bit by burning bit.

The Queens walked another decade together and watched their children marry and begin their own adventures. Talk of succession began in earnest. The draw of the forest never left, but as her hair paled Ebrietas found it easier and easier to ignore the song of blood. Yharnam was immensely proud of her wife, taking great strides to show her appreciation and care. On their thirtieth anniversary, they took a boat into the lake and strummed quiet melodies together on instruments of oak, the passion of their love not lost. In the decade that followed, Ebrietas and Yharnam kept no secrets from one another, not one desire or doubt left in the dark.

It was enough until it wasn’t. On a hot night in the dead of summer Yharnam woke to find her Ebrietas kneeling beside their bed and fighting back heavy tears, every inch of her soaked with thick red. They shared a moment of despair, the silence ringing between them long after they locked eyes. The red moon shone full over the deep forest below.

“I’m sorry,” Ebrietas said.

“I know,” Yharnam caressed her wife’s cheek, sad and deeply tired. “Let me get some rags.” She drifted from the room, leaving Ebrietas on the floor in a puddle of viscera glimmering by the moonlight. The warrior turned Queen cried, shame filling the depths of her very bones. As she wept, a figure appeared on her balcony.

“Do you still have the stone?” asked the woman of the wood. Ebrietas glared at her, hate fueling a rise in her bloodlust.

“No, you creature.” Ebrietas spat at her, baring her teeth, “I threw it away.” The woman smirked. Once more she reached into her pocket and produced a small ruby object, identical to the last, glowing in the shadow of her palm.

“Take into yourself the truth, child,” said the woman, “it’s been too long already”. She held her hand out to Ebrietas.

The Queen let the woman’s hand stay there, outstretched and waiting. She gulped, desperate and afraid, fearing for her loved ones. Then she took the stone. She played it between her shaking fingers, the red of the stone matching perfectly the red moon. “This will help quell the bloodlust inside me? The beast within that draws me to the woods again and again?”

The woman smiled, her eyes shadowed by the moonlight illuminating her back. “Yes.”

Ebrietas felt the decades crash onto her like rocks over a waterfall. Her cries resumed, but the woman did not vanish; she was patient. Sniffling, Ebrietas placed the object on her tongue and swallowed. In an instant it was liquid running down her throat, the taste of hot, pungent iron filling her mouth. Burning erupted inside her as she clutched her arms, unable to contain the flood of pain in her limbs. She cried out. In the torrent of blood and fury and fire and cold hurt she was caught by the sight of moon, its red brilliance piercing her eyes. She rose from her crumpled place on the rug, transfixed. Then she knew the truth.

It was in her brain as if it’d always been there, wormed away deep and tight. She shook, violent shudders rattling her spine. It would break her, shatter her every thought and emotion into unfixable shards, all separated by seas of blood. The cosmos sang into her from every particle of air infinitely small, and every planet immense and unknowable. The beings outside knowledge, the eyes inside. Those to come; those passed. Blood. Pale. A presence in her skull lingering from the moment she gained consciousness, unrecognizable for what it was until that single still picture in the thundering void of time and space. Beasts, humans, chaos; a child.

The Queen wailed like a newborn, tears flowing freely. Ebrietas could hear Yharnam yelling in the bedroom behind her, powerful and desperate, but she was unable to turn around and look back, the moon’s crimson light grasping at her from the cosmos above.

A bang rang out and the illusion hesitated; Ebrietas could move. She whipped around and saw the woman reeling back, Yharnam’s pistol smoking. Then the woman turned on her, her arms whipping out like blades. Ebrietas toppled over the balcony ledge, her eyes wide with mania and fear, Yharnam diving to grab her hand before gravity could claim her.

When Ebrietas hit the cobble her body crumbled, blood and viscera smearing the street. She expected to be dead, but quickly realized she wasn’t. Ebrietas passed through the earth like it wasn’t there, her husk of inhabited flesh discarded behind her like an afterthought. Time lost meaning as she dropped through the infinite vastness, black and all consuming. After minutes or months had passed, Ebrietas arrived in the nightmare at the end of the universe.

She found herself curled up in a bog of thick green gas, grey spires and dark hills made of screaming stone faces breaking the hazy surface in every direction. Bone white tentacles writhed in the liquid beside her, cloying, investigating her form. Terrified, Ebrietas hurtled to her feet and sloshed through the muck to a nearby shore where she vomited, her whole body shaking. Her hands looked the same, she thought, even after she watched them break apart against the unyielding stone ground.

The sky glowed a deep red, multiple moons sitting like great watchful eyes in its endless expanse, impossible formations of nebulas and galaxies whirling just beyond the thin crimson air of the atmosphere. A massive island of grey rock floated in the sky over the bog miles beyond where Ebrietas kneeled, others like it drifting at different altitudes through the blood haze. 

“Liar!” Ebrietas screamed into the void, her voice still somehow raw. She slumped inwards again, her eyes unable to focus, her blood boiling in her chest, bones shivering. “Yharnam…I’m so sorry. I did this, I did.” She found herself staring at the ground, death growing inside her.

“I suppose I did lie,” said the woman of the wood now standing over the lost Queen, gunshot nowhere to be found, “I kept this from you. Not that you would’ve understood had I tried to explain it, but now…” The woman pulled more of the red ruby objects from her coat and spun them in her hand. They were not stones after all, but appeared to be small spiral cords encased in hardened blood.

“You killed me. Is this hell?” Ebrietas punched the ground and was surprised to feel pain.

“You are not dead, Ebrietas, though your flesh and blood are no more. I’ve brought you home, my good hunter, and now you’ll transcend the hunt.”

Ebrietas dragged her weary eyes from the shapes of screaming heads in the ground and forced herself to stare at the woman. She’d changed, Ebrietas noticed. Her eyes were the same blood red as before, but there seemed to be more of them, though she couldn’t focus on her face well enough to count how many. Her vision slid off the woman like water, unable to track her. She was taller, too, with what appeared to be ribs poking from her chest through her clothes. Her hair floated about her head like a nebula catching starlight. It was mesmerizing.

“What are you?”

At that the woman smiled, her glinting red eyes matching the bloody hue of the nightmare’s many moons. “In a few long awaited moments, I’m going to be your mother. But first, Ebrietas, you must be born.” And she was gone. The woman vanished and Ebrietas’ swords and saws clattered to the ground where she stood.

Ebrietas blinked. “…mother…?” All around her small shore the bog bubbled, suddenly active. Dozens of bone-white creatures emerged, great maws of endless human teeth gnashing at her as tentacles, faces, and human hands thrashed in the air and against the rock. They were nearly upon her. Would she die again, Ebrietas thought? Would this be her second death, maybe her second birth? She pushed the words of the woman from her mind and shrieked, sorrow and pain rising to the surface of her skin. Yharnam, I love you so much. She reached inside herself to find the source of her bloodlust, the place she once called her inner beast, but when she found it she saw it for what it truly was, her sight sharpened by the nightmare. Ebrietas knew then that she never had a beast inside her and instead found the cosmos peering into her soul.

Her weapons were in her hands and she was shearing through the alien beings, red blood splattering her as she ripped skin and bone. Her mind was white. She didn’t realize her skin color was changing, nor did she feel the new razor-like teeth in her mouth. She carved and gutted and sluiced, endless bodies filing the bog to bursting. She left her shore. The Warrior Queen danced through the mire, directionless and powerful like the roll of a summer storm. Her screaming became crying which became screaming, red and green and yellow and white swimming in her eyes.

When she slowed Ebrietas was standing in a cove. Surrounded on all sides by cliffs of faces with a small tunnel and floating bodies behind her. She shook her head, trying to find balance inside and out. She knew there was something in front of her, something vast and moving, but her eyes slipped off it when she looked. Focus wouldn’t come.

She growled, hands still tight around her sword and saw, small wriggling tendrils poking out of her skin up and down her body. She made her eyes lock on the thing and felt a euphoric bliss when another set of eyes blinked open on her forehead, the cosmos whirling in her blood.

It was immense, arms and legs and claws and brains and organs slipping and sliding against each other, hundreds of mouths lines fully with crying human eyes emitting the wails of a newborn baby. How had she not heard it before? Ebrietas felt more new eyes pop open on her face. When she rushed forward she finally noticed the white tendrils erupting from her back, sinew connecting them like wings. Her saw glided through its flesh; her sword bit deep and bloody. Moment by moment it became smaller as the bog at Ebrietas’s feet continued to fill. She felt its infant screams bellow louder as dozens of bloodshot eyes opened on her head and inside her skull. She peeled the thing until it was gone and the child’s cry was silenced.

Ebrietas kneeled in the viscera, the weight of her new wings and arms pulling her down. She lowered her mouth to the thing that once was and ate. Piece after piece, eye after eye, she took the bloody scraps into herself and delighted in the feeling that pouring into her from all sides. Her eyes cried in bliss, her life before this moment a blurry memory slipping away like a dream. 

Above Ebrietas the moon-sized pale-red eyes watched her finish her first meal. Next to her caressing her side was the woman of the wood, her true form now clear to her child’s eyes.

“There’s a good girl,” the woman said, a low giggle echoing from her throat.

Ebrietas opened her maw and sighed, peace filling her heart.


End file.
